Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Who's Your Daddy? Logical Relationships in Revit MEP

This is an echo of a post from October 2011. I emphasize this concept in every session I do that is focused on Revit MEP and I think it's worth stating again.

Revit MEP elements, like electrical panels and receptacles or HVAC equipment and diffusers, have a Parent - Child relationship. Revit calls this a Logical Relationship. In contrast the physical relationship is described with duct/pipe but there is no equal for electrical systems. It could be with conduit or cable tray but no such relationship exists yet.

The other day we were chatting about this in class and I blurted out "You know, like who's your Daddy?" I was kidding but one of the guys said that it will actually help him remember to start with the "child" part of the relationship. For example, you start with a receptacle and create a power circuit (system), then choose the Daddy, the electrical panel it gets power from. This relationship continues up through the grandparents, great grandparents etc. When everything is assigned correctly you can see this family tree in the System Browser.


So if it helps, when you are creating relationships between elements with Revit MEP, just remember "Who's your Daddy"! START with the child and then assign the Daddy.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Update Releases and Color Fill Background Processing

I was reading recently (in a couple forums) about a problem with background processing and views using Color Fills. Autodesk acknowledged the issue and they've just issued an update for called Revit 2016 R2 Update 1, and there is an Update Release 11 available now for Revit 2015.

In the release notes they reference color fills when closing a document that uses them. That doesn't sound like the issue I read about specifically. Those seemed related to printing views that have a color fill applied but maybe that's a minor difference from the code's perspective. Hopefully this update does resolve the issue they were having. It did seem that users could avoid it (the background processing error) if they were careful to save their project, close Revit and restart it before attempting to print those views.

Download Revit 2016 R2 Update 1
Revit 2016 R2 Update 1 - Release Notes

Download Revit 2015 Update Release 11
Revit 2015 Update Release 11 - Release Notes

If you have Autodesk Application Manager installed, and if you'd like to see if it will let you acquire the updates, you can try a right-click on the icon in the system tray and choose Check Now.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Oh Project Browser and Properties Palette Where Art Thou

It is easy to close the Project Browser and Properties Palette, just click the little X in the top right corner of each window.


It is a little less obvious how to restore them. The formal Front Door is via the View ribbon tab > Windows panel > User Interface.


A bit less obvious is the access to Browsers via the right-click context menu, for the Project Browser at least.


I'm sure you noticed that the Properties Palette can be restored via the right-click context menu too.


It is also available on the Modify ribbon tab > Properties panel > Properties.


The Properties Palette also has two keyboard shortcuts: PP and CTRL+1, at least that's true of my configuration (stock install). There isn't one assigned to the Project Browser but we could opt to do that too.

Oh, Revit MEP users can close and open their System Browser with F9 as well as access it in the same way the Project Browser can be (described above).

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Wish - Transfer Project Standards Organization

Whine Mode On

This is a minor thing but there are times I really wish that the Transfer Project Standards list was sorted by Discipline instead of alphabetically. When I want to transfer just electrical settings to another file it is tedious to have to be careful to parse the whole list for related items that start with C, E, D, V and W...


Whine Mode Off

Friday, December 11, 2015

Revit 2016 - Project Address

In past releases the Project Address parameter that is baked into Revit has always required using the Project Information dialog to enter a proper address format. The usual techniques to force a hard return (like CTRL + Enter or CTRL + M) fail to deliver (for me they've never worked).


In 2016 (using R2 now) when I click on the Project Address parameter within a title block family a special dialog appears to add/edit the information, much more bettererer.

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Feature Request - Tell me Link Files Have Changed

Working with a group of people today several echoed a request I've heard quite a few times over the years. They'd like Revit to let us know when a linked file (Revit/DWG) has changed so they know to use Reload to see the changes. The precedent for this idea is...yeah AutoCAD.

I suspect that it might negatively affect the user experience when Revit pauses to check for changes, assuming it can't be done as a background process (or multi-threaded). In that case I'd prefer Revit stay nimble and leave it up to me to decide when to check for changes. If it could be done without harming performance then I'd welcome it too.

Something for under the Xmas tree...

Friday, December 04, 2015

Stretching Schedule Properties Dialog

When we stretch the schedule properties dialog only the Available Fields list gets wider. The side dedicated to the parameters assigned to the schedule gets no love.


It's been this way for quite awhile but it still seems strange to me...

Thursday, December 03, 2015

Insert Data Row is Disabled

While working in a Room Schedule we can create new rooms via Insert Data Row versus placing a room in the model and having it appear in the schedule. This allows us to assemble a project's programming requirements early or at least at the same time as modeling activities are creating the building. There are two settings that will disable the Insert Data Row tool (using Revit 2016 at the moment). This is what it should look like.


If we don't check the Itemize every instance option on the Sorting/Grouping tab the Insert Data Row is disabled.


The other culprit is using the Embedded Schedule feature.


Careful out there...